Monday, April 26, 2021

Maternal Tenacles

author's note:

The fossilized skeleton we call “Lucy”, is known in Ethiopia as “Dinkinesh”, which can be translated as “you are marvelous”.


MATERNAL TENTACLES

A year ago I saw a show
about an ancient ancestor

found under earth and rock
in dry savanna gorge--
they named her “Lucy”.

I immediately fell in love
with the poor innocent
and that night I dreamt
her tiny skeleton slept beneath
a blanket of my own ancient dust.

Yes, dreams tell incredible truths--
apparently the white man I am
carries this humble stone mother spirit
deep in his innards:

we hold more
than we’ll ever know
but
it’s good to know
as much as you can
about what you hold
because

I now feel the loss--
I now grieve the death
of this simple loving nature.
Now I will nurture
that maternal engine
back to life.

As I feel empathy for myself
I feel empathy for the world:
I can see this loss all over the world.
Men lactate in their own way--
a buried reservoir awakens.
I could stop the flow, but dare not--
for too long I’ve known
the pain of being dry.

Nonetheless, I’m tentative
as this milk spills over--spreads--extends
its tentacles
beyond the borders
of my domain‑‑
these feelers want to feel
but remain afraid:
    they’ve encountered
    blunt objects before
    and been blunted.

But with this fledgling spreading
the gray beneath Lucy's fingertips
slowly bleeds back to pink
and pink desert flowers bloom:

the prickly desert slowly transforms
into a desert garden.  Oh so slowly.
But slow change endures.

© 2021, Michael R. Patton
Dancing to Raven’s Song: a novel

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3 Comments:

Blogger Goldenrod said...

Such a fragile poem ... quite fitting for Lucy. She starts her exhibit here in Houston, I believe.

There's an exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts now that's been here for a while. I really must get over there before it goes somewhere else. I forget what it's called now, something about the mind? No, that's not right. (The inside/outside views of the human body is what it's all about, showing the interconnectiveness of it all.) Supposed to be quite extraordinary.

While I have little interest in going to see Lucy, I thought you might like to know, Michael, that -- in my opinion -- there has been a great deal of sacredness and respect for her evidenced in the advance publicity for this show, and in interviews with the museum staff and various archaeologists.

9:16 PM  
Blogger Goldenrod said...

I just remembered the name of the exhibit ... "Body Works" (might be one word only, but the name's correct).

9:18 PM  
Blogger Goldenrod said...

Ye Gods! Not the Museum of Fine Arts ... the Museum of Natural Science. Come on, Goldenrod, focus!

9:19 PM  

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